This invention relates generally to usage based billing products and services and more particularly, to timely and accurate electronic transmission, management and corroboration of usage based billing and accounting information between multiple parties.
Manufacturers and dealers sometimes provide equipment to end users and charge the end users a fee based on the extent to which the equipment is used. Such an arrangement, sometimes referred to as usage based billing, is advantageous for an end user since the expense of purchasing the equipment is avoided and service and maintenance of the equipment is usually included in the fee.
For example, office technology dealers sometimes provide a customer with equipment for business use and the customer is charged based on the customer's use of the equipment. With photocopiers, for example, the customer is billed based on the number of photocopies produced by the machines during the billing period. As an example, a customer may be billed $500 per month for a pre-set number of copies. The cost of equipment, service and maintenance is usually included in such payment. If the customer makes more than the pre-set number of copies in any given month, then the customer is also billed a per copy charge for each copy made in excess of the pre-set number of copies to cover the incremental cost of service and maintenance.
With respect to equipment supplied to customers on a usage based billing arrangement, the dealer often may secure financing from a financial institution. For example, the usage based lease entered into with the customer, the leased equipment and the equipment rental portion of each payment may be assigned to the financial institution. While the dealer collects or otherwise obtains information related to the monthly usage of the equipment, the financial institution is usually responsible for billing and collecting the payments from the customer. The dealer typically remains responsible for service and maintenance, and the cost of such service and maintenance is usually included in the amount billed by the financial institution to the customer. Therefore, the financial institution not only bills and collects from the customer, but also remits to the dealer that portion of each payment attributable to service and maintenance and excess usage charges.
To accurately determine the amount to be billed to a customer, information relating to the extent to which the equipment was used during the billing period is obtained. For photocopiers, for example, a meter coupled to each photocopier counts the number of photocopies made at each machine. The meter data is then collected and supplied to, for example, the dealer. If a dealer has many customers, and each customer has many photocopiers, simply collecting the meter data for each photocopier is a time consuming and tedious task.
Once the meter data is collected, the dealer then transmits the data to the financial institution. Reviewing the meter data, calculating the amount due for use of each photocopier, consolidating the data for each customer, and then sending a bill to each customer also is time consuming and tedious.
Further, since the amount billed for each photocopier is based on the number of copies made at each photocopier, the accuracy of the bills is dependent upon ensuring that the meter data has been correctly collected, entered, and processed. With multiple photocopiers and multiple customers, ensuring that the meter data has been correctly collected, entered, and processed is time consuming and tedious.
Once a customer has received a proper bill and submits payment to the financial institution, the financial institution then remits the agreed upon portion of the payment to the servicing dealer to cover the dealer's service and maintenance charges. Both the dealer and the financial institution also apply the money received to their respective open accounts receivables. Due to the high volume of data, the complexity associated with having the meter data collected by the dealer and relied upon by the financial institution to correctly bill and collect payments due and payable by the customer in a timely manner, and the combination of the service and maintenance charges with the excess usage charges, simply ensuring that each dealer receives the proper payment and that the payments are applied to the proper accounts is a complex task. Such complexity adds to the administrative cost of usage based billing arrangements.